Judith Shakespeare Company

The Judith Shakespeare Company in New York City has been invited back to an Actor's Equity special event in honor of Women's History Month and Support Women Artists Now (SWAN) Day. The March 19 event will be an evening of scenes and lecture-demo, demonstrating a variety of ways in which to effectively and realistically create more opportunities for women in Shakespeare productions.

"It's our hope that this work will spur theater artists and companies to create more opportunities for women in classical theater, an area that can only be addressed by nontraditional casting, since the plays already exist with fixed gender roles that greatly favor participation by male actors over female actors," JSC founder Joanne Zipay said in an e-mailed announcement.

Zipay is the lead director of this event, which was conceived and produced by company member Gael Schaefer. Also directing are Rebecca Patterson, artistic director of The Queen's Company, and Emily Davis, artistic director of Messenger Theatre Company.